1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt
3. Chop/cut in the butter until it’s the consistency of coarse cornmeal.
4. Add egg and three-quarters of the milk. Stir quickly and lightly. Add more milk if needed to make a soft dough.
5. Turn dough onto floured surface and knead about 15 times.
6. Pat dough into a round shape about 1/2″ thick. Cut into 8 wedges.
8. Glaze with more beaten egg if desired
9. Bake 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

To make in food processor

1. Put dry ingredients in processor and run processor until well mixed.
2. Cut cold butter into approx. 1/2″ cubes and add to processor. Pulse three or four times until butter is about the size of grains of rice.
3. Combine egg and about 5/8 c of milk and add to processor while it’s running. Stop processor as soon as ingredients are moistened. If you mix it longer, dough may get tough. Dough will be very sticky.
4. Turn dough out onto generously floured surface and knead lightly 12 times.
5. Pat into a 1/2″ thick round, cut into wedges and bake at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

Hints:

1. Use unsalted butter. Decrease the salt if you use salted butter.
2. Add enough milk to make a very moist dough. The scones will not be as light if the dough is dry.
3. Handle dough as lightly as possible so the you don’t activate the gluten in the flour.
4. A pastry scraper is a great tool to cut the scones – just press the edge straight down into the dough. A knife sort of tears the dough. They taste just as good either way.
5. Use an insulated cookie sheet if possible to avoid burning the bottom of the scones. No need to grease it.
6. Check scones after 10 minutes. If they are brown, they are done. Some like them better slightly underdone than overdone.
7. Preparation time is 10-15 minutes. Total time start to finish is 20-30 minutes.